Firm puts the wild back into wilderness

Big horn sheep at Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. The sheep were brought in from the Pacific coast of Mexico and now 250 head of livestock exist in the protected area. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

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Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Big horn sheep wait transport to New Mexico where they will help diversify the gene pool. The sheep were raised by Proyecto El Carmen - a protected wildlife habitat - established by CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world which purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife. The sheep were part of international trade for re-introducing pronghorns to Northern Mexico. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By Express-News graphic

Photo By Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

A bighorn sheep roams the territory at El Carmen Project in Mexico. The sheep were brought in from the country's Pacific Coast, and now 250 bighorns climb the slopes of the protected area.

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

A Rio Grande turkey jumps a creek near an abandoned logging camp in Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

CEMEX has had success restoring grasslands (pictured near center) using mechanical means to break up hardened desert floor in Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Looking west from Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

A white tail deer looks up from grazing in the scrub brush in Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Big horn sheep at Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. The sheep were brought in from the Pacific coast of Mexico and now 250 head of livestock exist in the protected area. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

A white tail buck roams the scrub brush near the foot of Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Looking West toward the Ocampo Flora and Fauna Protection Area from Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Looking West toward the Ocampo Flora and Fauna Protection Area from Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

The limestone cliffs of El Jardin just south of Big Bend National Park in the first wilderness designation in Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Big horn sheep at Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. The sheep were brought in from the Pacific coast of Mexico and now 250 head of livestock exist in the protected area. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

White tail deer seen in scrub brush at the foot of Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Big horn sheep at Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. The sheep were brought in from the Pacific coast of Mexico and now 250 head of livestock exist in the protected area. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

A deserted logging cabin high in the Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Projecto El Carmen. Prior to CEMEX's efforts, piles of sawdust and debris littered the area. CEMEX is still working on removing the garbage and attempt to restore the area to its natural state. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Mix of pines and Douglas fir near the peak of the high forests of Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the top cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Cliffs during sunset at Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the top cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Mortar holes used to grind up grains and nuts by early inhabitants in Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. Prior to CEMEX buying the property, people lived in the caves along the mountain range. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

A view of Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico while in flight from Cuidad Acuna. The drive to the remote sanctuary can take as long as 15 hours from Del Rio, Texas where as a flight is about an hour. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

A view from Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico looking Northwest over the Rio Grande into Big Bend National Park. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the top cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Grasslands leading up to Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Discussions between Mexico and the United States for re-opening the Boquillas border crossing may open this area to tourism. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Grasslands at sunset near Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the biggest cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Overhang where logging truck drivers made a make-shift altar for luck while driving the steep, winding dirt roads leading through and up into Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. The roads led up to 8,500 feet in elevation from the desert floor. CEMEX, one of the top cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Rainbow cactus in Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the top cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Photo By KIN MAN HUI/Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

Project manager Billy Pat McKinney looks over grasslands that have rebounded after a recent fire and from the removal of grazing livestock in Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico. CEMEX, one of the top cement companies in the world, purchased about 400,000 acres of land south of Big Bend National Park and in the past 10 years has developed a private conservatory for native wildlife and vegetation called Proyecto El Carmen. Kin Man Hui/kmhui@express-news.net

EL CARMEN, Mexico — On the west flank of the Carmen Mountains in northern Mexico, the grass grows knee-high and glows iridescent red in the setting sun.

It has been decades since this mountainside has had such thick pasture.

From overgrazing the valley floor and clear-cutting the old-growth pine and Douglas fir on the 8,000-foot-high ridgelines, this mountain range, stretching for 90 miles, bears scars from three centuries of people trying to make a living.

Now in an experiment that crosses the U.S. boundary and butts up against Big Bend National Park, one of the world’s largest cement companies is working to erase those marks and restore a desert with more biodiversity than almost any other.

“We are trying to turn back time. And I want to see it in my lifetime,” said Billy Pat McKinney, manager of El Carmen Project for CEMEX.

The Mexican company owns 300,000 acres and manages another 100,000 acres of neighboring property. Combined, it’s half the size of Big Bend National Park but has higher elevations, greater plant and animal diversity and is entirely dedicated to preserving and restoring wilderness.

In the past 10 years, CEMEX has done some of best grassland restoration and wildlife reintroduction work ever seen on either side of the border, according to federal and state biologists and researchers at Sul Ross State University.

Its size and science-based approach have raised the stature of private land conservation, a model that doesn’t rely on help from federal or state governments.

After more than 70 years of talk about establishing an international peace park in the Big Bend region, CEMEX has created a private one, sans the tourists.

“This is like off-the-charts interesting,” said Vance Martin, president of The WILD Foundation, an international organization dedicated to protecting wild places and wildlife for their social, spiritual, economic and biological benefits. “This can truly be a different type of peace park.”

Sky island

Like the Chisos Mountains in Big Bend, El Carmen is a sky island in the middle of a desert sea. At the foot of the mountains is open desert scrub dominated by the creosote bush and cactus.

Higher up, the mountains catch more rain and are topped by a dense forest of pine and Douglas fir. In between are meadows, canyons and slopes that are home to the type of diversity usually found in rainforests.

But it’s not visitor-friendly and CEMEX isn’t looking to attract sightseers. Unlike the national park, there are no interpretive signs, trail maps or hikers stomping to their reserved campsites. It is a place where the tracks of mountain lions and bears on the dirt roads are as common as the tread patterns of four-wheel-drive trucks.

Still, drug-fueled violence in Mexico has reached even this remote place in the state of Coahuila. During the Christmas holidays, six men reportedly were shot outside a small town near the property. Such killings once were unheard of.

Now, uninvited visitors are asked to leave and the few roads crossing the mountains are monitored. CEMEX’s mission is this: conserve and manage the land’s biodiversity and natural heritage. It started toward that goal by removing livestock, restoring grassland habitat and then bringing in wildlife native to the area.

Having already spent an undisclosed amount of money toward its mission, CEMEX is seeing results.

Black bears on their own moved in from the south and have steadily grown in number, expanding their range back into Texas. Carmen Mountains white-tailed deer, named for the area, also have returned and are thriving. CEMEX brought in bighorn sheep and pronghorn, and herds of them now are established on land where they had been extinct for more than half a century.

“This is where it starts to do its own thing,” McKinney said about the land as he watched the sun set near the base of the mountains.

Surrounded by a tapestry of grassland and shrubs created by allowing fire to again periodically sweep across the landscape, he smiled with pride. He and his wife, Bonnie, who manages the project’s wildlife research, have been working toward habitat like this for a decade.

“When you get that happening, you are on the downside of doing good,” he said.

But this patch, with more than a score of different grass species, is only a small portion of El Carmen. It’s where McKinney, after the grazing livestock was removed, saw the fortunate combination of fire followed by several good rains produce healthy grassland in a matter of a few years.

Tens of thousands of acres of El Carmen are in poor shape and won’t recover at the same pace. The grass of the valley floor was grazed to stubs by cattle. The bare dirt was compacted by their hooves and baked by the sun to almost the hardness of concrete. McKinney is experimenting with heavy machinery to break up the soil and let the scant rain seep in.

Along with monitoring the movements of the herds of bighorn sheep and pronghorns, Bonnie McKinney is heading up a full biological survey of the land. So far 79 species of mammals, 80 species of reptiles and amphibians and a growing list of birds that totals more than 250 species have been documented.

It’s not easy or cheap. McKinney oversees a staff of 15 and has a bus running from Boquillas to bring in laborers. Biologists drive in from Monterrey. He uses helicopters to do animal surveys and commutes by a single-engine Cessna.

A different model

El Carmen Project is novel in that a corporation bought the land specifically to attempt conservation on a vast scale. If the experiment goes well, then wilderness advocates could show other private landowners what’s possible and maybe convince them that conservation is in their best interests. Potentially bigger swaths of land could be protected without solely relying on governments.

Conservationists on both sides of the border hope the CEMEX property will become part of a trans-boundary mega-corridor encompassing millions of acres of land managed to the benefit of humans and wildlife. Such a swath crossing the Rio Grande would ensure the protection of migration routes and give plants and animals a better chance of surviving climate change, Martin said.

The ecological services that open spaces offer, like filtering water and cleaning the air, Martin said can’t be provided by parks alone.

“What science has found out is the big ‘duh,’ it’s that you can’t have islands. That’s not how nature works,” Martin said. “You have to have landscapes and not parks.”

The park model as it is known in the United States wouldn’t work in Mexico, he explained. The government doesn’t have the resources, and Martin thinks the idea of vast tracks of government-controlled land would not sit well with the public.

That El Carmen is not a government project has its benefits. The McKinneys don’t have to win approval of a board or wait for an appropriation. When they needed a brood facility to protect the bighorn sheep from predators, a 36-mile-long, 10-foot-tall electrified fence was built. They had crews tear out hundreds of miles of old fence line so the free roaming herds would not get tangled in the barb wire.

“They don’t have to push as much paper as those of us who work for the governments to make good things happen on the ground,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Aimee Roberson, who is based in Alpine.

As a private landowner, CEMEX was free to designate whatever land it wanted as wilderness, pledging not to build roads or allow other development. In contrast, conservationists in the U.S. have pushed for more than a decade to get a similar wilderness designation in Big Bend National Park.

But once land in the U.S. is declared wilderness, it can’t be easily reversed because of government protection. CEMEX could change its mind and would face few consequences.

As impressive as El Carmen project is, there is no guarantee it will continue as is.

“You do have to remember that this is some rich guy’s playground in some respects,” said Helen Poulos, who earned her doctorate from Yale in part based on her months-long research at El Carmen and at Big Bend National Park.

“I agree with most of what they are doing,” she said. Since CEMEX operations are causing destruction worldwide, she added, “It’s better than doing nothing.”

If El Carmen Project lasts for only 10 more years, Roberson said, it would be worth it from an ecological standpoint. The work is providing protection that otherwise would not have happened. If the project does end, perhaps then others might take up the effort, she said.